A strong performance from hotels in the Americas lifted IHG during the third quarter of 2026, with regional revpar up 6.8%.
All regions saw positive momentum, despite upheavals caused by conflict in the Middle East. The busiest customer segment was group, with demand up 10%. Stronger demand overall enabled IHG to push up prices by an average 3.9% globally, while room occupancy eased up 0.9%. Net system growth recorded an increase of 4.9% year on year.
All Brands Contributed to Success
“Our US performance was very strong, with growth across all brands,” reported CEO Elie Maalouf. “There was very good growth in EMEAA, most notably in Continental Europe and East Asia & Pacific, which included an increase in inbound travel from China.”
IHG finished the quarter with 7,186 hotels, while it opened 92 during the quarter. But it was the group’s signing momentum that was more impressive, with 164 hotels added to the pipeline, taking its global pipeline total to 353,000 rooms across 2,426 hotel projects around the globe.
IHG’s growth has been helped by the addition of new brands, notably those such as Voco which are flexible and suit hotel conversions. A truly global brand, it has seen a slew of recent openings around the world, including Voco Parma & Congressi, Voco London Bloomsbury and Voco Antalya Konyaalti in Europe. Further afield, the 227 room Voco Queenstown has opened in New Zealand, and Voco Shenyang Golden Corridor recently launched in China.
The brand is also supporting the group’s expansion in the Americas. In Canada, Voco Montreal and Voco Toronto Airport are in the pipeline. In Mexico, Voco Guadalajara Expo has just opened, with five more sites signed across the country. And in the US, voco Missoula Downtown has just opened, with Voco El Celeste signed in New Mexico.
“We expect another year of record development activity, and for 2026 to be our fifth straight year of accelerating net system growth,” asserted Maalouf. “Development remains split broadly evenly between new builds and conversions, with each of our collection and conversion-focused brands – voco, Vignette, Garner and Noted – continuing their rapid expansion around the world.”
The Garner brand is making impressive progress, with 120 hotels already open and dozens more signed. In India alone, the brand has a pipeline of seven hotels, with the first of these, Garner Kutch Gujarat about to open before the year end. Into 2027 and IHG will open Garner Kathua, Garner Etawah, and Garner Bhiwadi.
Holiday Inn Family Leads the Way
Holiday Inn Express is the group’s largest brand, with 3,353 hotels globally, followed by Holiday Inn with 1,263 properties. In contrast, the Regent luxury brand, and extended stay brand Atwell Suites, have just 11 properties each globally.
With strong cash generation from the business, IHG will return over USD1.2 billion to shareholders over the course of 2026. This will be in the form of USD285 million of dividend payments, and around USD950 million deployed to buy back the company’s shares on the open market.
